Russia has abstained from voting on a Security Council resolution to extend the mandate of the UN mission set up to organize a referendum in Western Sahara, which seeks independence from Morocco.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council (UNSC) renewed the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year after 12 of its 15 members voted in favor of a US-drafted resolution. The southern African nation of Mozambique joined Russia in abstaining. Algeria, having earlier proposed two amendments to the US draft, did not vote, citing “deliberate disregard” for its views and stance.
In a statement following the vote, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said Moscow had decided to abstain from the resolution because it is “unlikely to contribute to achieving a mutually acceptable solution” to the dispute over the former Spanish colony. Russia also did not support Algeria’s proposed revisions, in line with its “position that it is inappropriate to inflate the human rights component of United Nations missions,” the envoy said.
“Russia, along with other delegations, made a series of proposals and amendments to the text, but they were ignored. At the same time, Russia’s proposals were not radical in nature and were not intended to introduce deliberately impracticable language,” Nebenzia stated.
Morocco de facto controls around 80% of Western Sahara, which it annexed in 1975 after Spain withdrew from the territory. The North African state’s sovereignty claim has been a source of regional tension and a decades-long conflict between Rabat and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.
The UNSC established the MINURSO in April 1991 to oversee a self-determination referendum in which the people of Western Sahara would choose between independence and integration with Morocco, but the process has since stalled. Algeria, which opposes Morocco’s “occupation,” has long supported a political solution that would grant independence to the phosphate-rich region. Rabat has, however, insisted that limited autonomy is the best political solution it can offer for the territory, where just over 550,000 people live.
On Thursday, Algerian Permanent Representative to the UN Amar Bendjama stated that his country did not participate in voting due to “the attitude of the penholder,” who failed to demonstrate objectivity.
Moscow said requests for revisions to “clearly differentiate in the text of the document between the two parties to the conflict” were not considered. Ambassador Nebenzia accused “the American informal penholders” of making changes to the text “themselves,” rendering it “even less balanced.”